Have you ever ridden alongside a longhorn steer during a cattle drive? No? Or, come upon a Trail Crew while they were waiting for the coffee to get hot over the fire? Felt the spray of water on your face from a watering hole and as you bend down to take a drink, you realize you are not alone - a longhorn is also taking a drink nearby? Not concerned, he just swishes his tail at a fly and goes back to drinking. 
Or, what about being within just a few feet of a Bison that is grazing in the tall grass along the well traveled Shawnee Trail with a Native American closing in behind him? Well, the next time you are waiting at a light on Preston Road in Frisco, Texas or visiting some of the shops located off Gaylord Parkway and Preston Road - you can. In fact, on any day or even night for that matter, you can actually see, touch and experience an entire cattle drive depicted by the world’s largest bronze sculpture display while traveling north and south along Preston Road in Frisco, Texas.
Preston Road, also known as, the Preston Trail and the Shawnee Trail, is the oldest north–south road in North Central Texas and was well traveled by Native American and Bison in the early
1800’s and ran from St. Louis to San Antonio, Texas.
If you were standing in the intersection of State Highway 121 and Preston Road some 40 years ago you would only see a small fruit and vegetable stand on the southwest corner called “Lolaville”, an auto dealership on the nortwest corner and the small white frame Lebanon Baptist Church further north up Preston Road. The truth is, that was not Frisco - at least not yet. The fruit and vegetable stand lovingly called Lolaville is actually Lolaville, Texas and the Lebanon Baptist Church actually belonged to the Village of Lebanon (pronounced Leb’nun) which also dates back to the 1800’s.
Lebanon was a thriving community with several businesses, churches, schools and a post office and had a reputation among the cattle drivers as being a “wild and wooly” place. Lebanon reached its peak in the 1890’s with a population of 450, however, change began to occur with the building of the railroad and by 1900 the population of Lebanon was 272. Many moved away, however, some of the families physically moved their homes on logs powered by steam engines, 3 miles to the north to be close to the Rail Road and to be on the mail line.
In 1902 the San Francisco-St. Louis Railroad Company, which was also known as the Frisco, began serving the community of Emerson, named after Francis Emerson, a McKinney Banker. Since it was too similar to another Texas town called Emberson – the name was changed to Frisco City and then later shortened to Frisco – to represent the importance of what the railway meant to the beginning of their town.
Where there are steam locomotives you must have water. So the Frisco Lake was formed to provide water for the steam engines and also became a sort of public swimming pool. The water was pumped into overhead tanks next to the depot.
There is a story that for awhile, trains where loading up with water from the tanks and as they headed back down the tracks, the engine would seize up. It was later discovered that some of the kids in town were swimming in those tanks causing the water to be “soapy”. Once the railroad crew found out was going on, they poured several hundred gallons of crude oil into the tanks. The oil floated on top and when the kids dove in they came out covered in oil. That was the end to swimming in the tanks, especially when the kids also realized that the railroad crew had also hidden their clothes that they left behind at a nearby cotton gin.
Cotton gins were located near the railroad downtown so that the bales of cotton could be easily loaded onto the boxcars for delivery. During those days, “Cotton was King” and Frisco was considered a hub for cotton, also known as “white gold”.
There was also plenty of activity in town. So much so that the main street downtown Frisco would be packed and the sidewalks would be so full of people – that some had to walk on the road- moving aside for the occasional model-T to go by. Main Street used to be just a dirt road not even graveled and would get really muddy after it rained.
If you were hungry you could eat at Shorty Stark’s Café’. Out of town guests would stay at the Commercial Hotel, later called the The Johnson. There was a theater which was called “The Picture Show”, a Barber shop, and another Café’ known as Sapp’s Café. In August of 1922 Samuel C. Curtsinger bought the W.G. Wolf Drug Store – just 1 month before a fire destroyed most of downtown Frisco on September 2, 1922. Amazingly, Curtsinger’s Drug Store, along with a few other businesses survived the fire as well as the brick arch of “The Picture Show”.
Since most of the buildings were constructed mainly of wood and the town only had a single Model-T fire truck, help had to come from surrounding Celina, McKinney and even Denton to help out. Soon after the fire – city council held a meeting and began drafting an ordinance stating that buildings had to be made from other materials besides just wood.
Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, Frisco recovered from the fire and continued to grow and see many changes.
In 1924 Texas Power and Light Co. began serving the still small community and in 1930, Southwester Bell set up shop by buying a house at Fifth and Elm Streets and had live operators, that would answer “Central” and then “number please”. With only 65 telephones on the system at that time, they were considered a luxury and phone bills were around $1.50. In 1954 the live operators were replaced with dial operation. 1963 saw another tragedy when a tornado ripped through Frisco causing $200,000 in damage. Fortunately there were no fatalities and no injuries reported. In 1970 the Frisco Chamber of Commerce was established and the population had reached 1,845.
By 1976 the last gin in Frisco closed for good as the 1980’s brought about a shift in land value from farming to land development and in 1987 Frisco voted to adopt a home rule charter and the first city manager was hired. By 1990 the population had grown to 6,138. Public schools were growing and the Collin County Community College opened up its Preston Ridge campus in 1995. By 2000 – a $298 million dollar referendum was approved that included the building of 7 elementary, 2 middle and 2 high schools.
By 2006 Cotton was no longer grown in either Collin or Denton Counties.
There are a lot of facts about Frisco, the beginning years, the years leading up to present day. There are GPS coordinates, altitude and longitude and whole lot of other technical jargon which are of course important. But what really makes up the town and its history are the people and their stories. These are just a few.
There are stories of gold from a bank robbery said to be buried between two twin wells, just off of Preston Road, snuff thrown into the fans at “The Picture Show” emptying out the entire theater, interesting characters such as “Two Gun Pete” and the time he shot the belt off of a criminal’s pants as he was running away and well, you get the picture. There is a story of a drunk that was left in the “calaboose” also known as a jail or prison, on a Friday night by the Former Mayor Harold Bacchus and the city marshal - and forgotten about until the following Monday. After the Mayor heard the sounds coming from the 6’h x 15’L x 12’ w concrete building located just off of First Street and to the south of Main Street – the man was released - very sober and very hungry.
There were the Doctors in town that went above and beyond the call of duty. There was Dr. Saye whose practice was in the back of Curtsinger’s Drug Store. He was full of ideas and would etch them out on the alabaster table tops of the drug store. One of those ideas came to be State Highway 121. When he wasn’t etching out ideas or making house calls – you could catch a glimpse of him at the soda fountain where there was a miniature roulette wheel. Dr. Saye would call out “roll you for a coke!” There was Dr. Erwin G. Pink, also known as Painless Pink”. It’s said that he would stitch up a Friday night football player on the hood of a car and send him right back out to play!
If you were standing at the intersection of State Hwy 121 and Preston Road now, you would see that Lolaville, is long gone, but the Stonebriar Mall and other retail shops were a welcome site.
The Lebanon Baptist Church no longer sits on Preston Road. Although it was not moved on logs – it now resides at The Frisco Heritage Museum.
And if you you’ve ever dined at a table at Randy’s Steakhouse on Main Street in Frisco, then you’ve actually dined at a table of the T.C. Campbell home, which was one of the homes moved on logs by steam engines years ago. When you walk out the door and down the steps of Randy’s close your eyes for just a moment and you can still hear the train whistle as it goes by just as it did back then, years ago. It’s still a glorious sound even though the sound of that whistle is now mixed with the sound of cars passing by.
The train depot is gone but you can see much of its history through the photographs and other memorabilia on display at the Depot Café. Out back of the Café’ - the calaboose still stands, although the walls are crumbling and the door is missing, for good reason.
The cattle drives faded out years ago – but you can still ride alongside one any time, day or night. Their journey has been a long one and still goes on even now as they walk the same route all day every day and into the night but they won’t mind a visit. And, if you look very closely, you can see the dust flying up from their hoofs.
Though time stands still for these longhorns and their Trail Crew – Frisco does not and it continues to grow, advance and move on.
But the humble beginnings will never be forgotten. Resources:
Interview: J. W. Carpenter, Dec. 28, 2008
Interview: Dennis Francis, Proprietor – The Depot Café, Jan.10, 2009
The Frisco Heritage Museum
“Frisco – Now and then” by Robert M. “Bob” Warren
“Frisco The First One Hundred Years” by Steve Quinn
“Lebanon On The Preston” by Adelle Rogers Clark
